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Another mine approved in Tarkine

SALLY SARA: The Tasmanian Government has approved another mine in the Tarkine. The decision comes just days after the Federal Government approved a new mine on the Tarkine coast.

Environmental groups are worried that the region is about to be opened up for mining at a time when they're trying to protect vast areas of rainforest.

Felicity Ogilvie reports from Hobart.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The future of the Tarkine region is reaching a critical point.

This week the Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, approved a new mine.

This afternoon the acting Premier, Bryan Green, announced that the Tasmanian Government has approved another. It's an iron ore mine at Riley Creek.

BRYAN GREEN: This Riley's deposit will earn venture in excess of $200 million. It will provide 60-odd jobs and, as I've said, will go a long way to facilitating the development of the tin-tungsten mine in Mount Lindsay, which is going to employ up to 1,000 people.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The Federal Environment Minister will have the final say on whether the West Australian company Venture Minerals will be allowed to build three new mines in the Tarkine.

The biggest mine is a tin project that Venture Minerals says is worth almost $1.5 billion.

The Mayor of Circular Head, Daryl Quilliam, says locals are delighted that two mining projects have been approved this week.

DARYL QUILLIAM: There's been a lot of excitement by places where I wouldn't have expected it. And so the schools are really pleased because it means that schools that have been threatened with closure, it's going to help them not to be threatened. So that was an interesting one for me that we got support there. That probably surprised me a little bit.

FELICITY OGILVIE: But environmentalists campaigning for a national park are concerned.

SCOTT JORDAN: It's an area that's been identified as having both World Heritage and National Heritage values. It's an area that was included for reservation under the intergovernmental agreement on forests in Tasmania.

FELICITY OGILVIE: A member of the Tarkine coalition who's been part of the forest peace negotiations is Phil Pullinger from Environment Tasmania.

Doctor Pullinger says the trees at the Riley mining site have only been earmarked for protection from logging.

PHIL PULLINGER: The exact land tenure for those new forest reserves is not yet clear. That comes as a part of the protection order, values and purposes that is yet to be published in the gazette. Obviously environment groups have an aspiration as that area in the Tarkine region has global significance and it's properly protected as a national park.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Several reserve systems in Tasmania allow trees that are protected from logging to be cut down for mining.

In a recent interview the managing director of Venture Minerals, Hamish Halliday, disputed Scott Jordan's claim about the rainforest at the mining sites.

HAMISH HALLIDAY: We're not cutting down old growth forests, most of our areas are regrowth areas. A lot of our areas have been logged before, and you've got to bear in mind, Felicity, that every one of our deposits, without exception, is in an area that's been previously mined. So we're not talking about going into virgin areas.

Also, all of our projects are within a few hundred metres of a sealed road and a hydropower lines. So these are not remote areas. These are areas that have seen a lot of development in the last hundred years, and again, every one of our prospects are located on areas that have been previously mined, anywhere from the 1880s through to the 1960s.

FELICITY OGILVIE: But Scott Jordan maintains that part of the forest at the Riley Creek mining site is untouched.

SCOTT JORDAN: This site is predominantly rainforest area. There's a small part of the site that was subject to some logging in 1982 and has regrown. But the vast majority of the site is virgin country.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The counter claims are likely to play out in protests with the environmental groups vowing to blockade any new mines, while locals who support the industry are promising to fight back.